Complete Thesis_double spaced abstract.pdf

Guatemala had been described as being in a “chronic social crisis” with “staggering
problems of poverty and racism”; social indicators over forty years would reflect that sentiment
(Vanden, 2002, 270). The life expectancy for an average Guatemalan was 42 years in 1950 and
by 1995 had risen to 66.3 years. Infant mortality was 141/1000 live births in 1950 and had risen
to 46/1000 live births in 1995; in the rural areas it remained at 84/1000 live births. Literacy rates
were 29.7% of the population over 15 in 1950 and 38% of males and 51% of females in 1995.
Illiteracy often excluded individuals from being allowed to vote in elections, after the coup in
1954 76.1% of all women and 95.2% of indigenous women were excluded from voting due to
literacy requirements (Jonas, 1991, 23). The low literacy rates were rates unsurprising since
Guatemala spent considerably less of its budget on education; 2.2% in the 1960s, dropping to
1.6% by the 1980s. Urbanization had risen from 25% in 1950 to 42% in 1995. Most of the
newcomers to Guatemala City lived in the shanty towns on the periphery of the city, poor access
to sanitation and potable water led to waterborne diseases. Communicable diseases in the rural
and urban areas were compounded by the low number of physicians to the general population. In
1950 there was one physician for every 9000 people; by 1980 there was one physician for every
2,500 but by 1990 the number had increased to one physician per 3,300. The indicator,
physicians per capita, was a somewhat misleading statistic since in rural areas there was one
physician per 25,000 Guatemalans. The care provided by hospitals was extremely poor, most
hospitals stock would only purchase two weeks worth of supplies at a time; there was not enough
food to feed patients a regular diet.
While some of the social indicators for Guatemala do improve over the four decades they
most often do not improve substantially in the rural areas and they continue to compare poorly to
the rest of the region and the world. For example, in 1960 Latin American states reported a life
expectancy of 56.2 years while Guatemala reports a life expectancy of 47 in the same year. By
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